The Combine razor train speeds along toward its destination, black metal gleaming in the sun like knife efficiently cutting through all the chaos of the world. Even from the outside, it looks evil. Deadly. Unearthly.

Inside, suspicions are confirmed; the spartan, narrow corridors are filled with all forms of munitions and turrets - the weapons of ( Read more... )

They're watching him. The three of them, on the train, the lone bare lightblub casting disgusting shadows across their masks.

(Horrible masks, all staring at him, they've been staring at him, souless eyes so souless...)

tell us, barney
tell us where white forest is

we'll help them

they're in danger

just tell us

it's easy“Nn-noo,” Barney groans ( Read more... )

Barney wakes up to a ball of fire staring him in the face, and he's pretty sure he's dead. You don't survive proximity mines if you're stupid enough to walk into one. And the vague whistling sound he hears means he's gotta be dead... or at least close.

Do your ears ring when you're dead? a voice in his mind asks. The effort the thought costs him ( Read more... )

It's nighttime now, though you wouldn't know it. The eerie glow of the superportal lights up the entire area--a constant reminder that while they're shielded enough from any portal storms, they're also sitting ducks for anything tramping through this area ( Read more... )

He wakes up in a haze, with leaden eyelids that stubbornly refuse to open. The gentle clickety-clack of the train car urges him back to sleep as it travels along the rails. He knows he can't, and he shakes himself instead. Distantly, he notices a coppery taste drifting into his mouth as he licks dry, cracked lips.

Put me on a train, mama
This place ( Read more... )